Oceanside couple celebrate 65 years of marriageSoloRider Single-Rider Golf Car plays a role

By Marsha Kay Seff Staff Writer - June 4, 2006

EDUARDO CONTRERAS / Union-Tribune

More than six decades ago, John Mueller walked into his dentist's office in Dubuque, Iowa, to have an impacted wisdom tooth removed. The electrical engineer says he awoke from sedation with new wisdom, the wisdom to ask out the dental assistant smiling down on him.

"I married my sweetheart, and I found out she was my soul mate," John Mueller, sitting in his SoloRider says of his wife of 65 years, Faith.

When I woke up, Faith was standing there with a marriage certificate all signed, quips 88-year-old John.

The truth, according to Faith, is that she liked him well enough to ask him to her sorority's spring dance. She still laughs about their first date. It seems she slipped playing tennis that afternoon and was glad she could hide her bandaged elbows under the long sleeves of a lavender dress her mom had made for the occasion.

Meanwhile, John recalls, She already had a boyfriend who kept chasing me in his Oldsmobile. I don't know why she turned him down, but I'm glad.

He was ugly, she says, adding, even though he was the only one who brought flowers.

I brought Band-Aids, John reminds her.

He explains his attraction: She was a sweet kid, a beautiful young lady.

I liked everything about him, she says. And he's always supported me in anything I've wanted to do.

The Oceanside couple celebrated their 65th anniversary last month.

We were married when I was three years younger than he, says 86-year-old Faith.